Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Martin Luther College freshman Rachel McCaughna throws the ball home during an Upper Midwest Athletic Conference softball game against the University of Northwestern on Friday at MLC.

NEW ULM — If wiping away the top of the third inning, Friday evening’s game against the University of Northwestern would’ve been more interesting for Martin Luther College heading into the bottom of the seventh.

The Knights had chances to do damage control after that top of the third with their bats, but they were unable to in the end as the Eagles’ six-run third inning propelled them to a 10-3 win in an Upper Midwest Athletic Conference softball game at MLC.

Chloe Berg led the Knights with a 3-for-3 day at the plate and two RBIs, while Jordyn Heckendorf was 3 for 3 with a triple and two runs scored.

Kate Beer was 3 for 3 with an RBI and two walks to lead the Eagles, while Grace Bentley was 3 for 5 with two RBIs and a home run. Gabrielle Keith was 2 for 5 with a pair of doubles and an RBI also for the Eagles.

Emma Heffron earned the win in the circle, pitching all seven innings and allowing seven hits and two walks for three earned runs. She struck out eight.

Jessica Horn took the complete-game loss, allowing 16 hits and four walks for eight earned runs while striking out one.

Apart from Horn’s third inning, where she allowed eight hits and a wild pitch, the junior righty was able to compose herself after that.

“We look at batters before hand, we watch film on other teams, we know batters to watch for, things we’re trying to keep,” MLC head softball coach Becca Doering said. “I give it to Jess, Jess has put in so much work as a junior coming in as someone who didn’t pitch in high school and has really put in the work to do what we can. She’s a fighter and she didn’t want to come out in that inning, and I give her a lot of credit for that.

“She was working with a really tough zone with the umpire, but I thought she was adjusting well, and we’re really glad that she was able to mentally fight through that and come back and have a couple of solid innings. Being a pitcher is tough in and of itself because it all starts with you, so we have to be able to pick her up as well. And when she’s having a tough inning like that, when we get the opportunities, we definitely have to pick her up.”

Doering added that while she thought the strike zone was a bit tight on the sides, the calls were consistent and her players needed to adapt.

“I umpired in my past career and I have a lot of respect for umpires, especially at the collegiate level, because it’s not an easy job,” Doering said. “I will say he was very consistent on it, so I did appreciate that. But you know it’s a tough thing, but we have to be able to adjust to it at the end of the day.”

The Eagles, who started the game with a 1-0 lead after an RBI single by Jadyn Iverson, quickly lost that lead in the bottom of the first after Anna Busch swiped second and Heckendorf took home to tie the game. MLC then got an RBI single by Berg to bring home Busch for a 2-1 lead.

Sydney Lane’s RBI single brought home Riley Summers in the second to tie it up at 2-all.

Then came the big six-run third inning that broke things open for the Eagles.

Bentley was first to strike with a leadoff homer to left. UNW strung together four more hits before Horn was able to force an infield pop out to Berg for the first out of the inning.

The Eagles added another run to the board before that out, however, and then got another pair of hits and a groundout to score three more runs. After batting through the lineup, Bentley got to the plate again and ended the scoring in the third with an RBI single to right gave the Eagles an 8-2 lead.

Berg singled to right to drive in Heckendorf in the bottom of the third to have the Knights down 8-3.

After a few scoreless frames, Heckendorf kept it that way when she had a highlight catch in center field in the top of the sixth to save a hit. On that play, Lane got a hold of a pitch and sent it deep to center, but Heckendorf backpedaled fast enough to make a leaping grab while falling back into the fence to retire the side.

The Eagles added another pair of runs in the seventh after Beer scored on an error and Keith doubled in Reganne Henning.

Emmalee Mindock walked with one out in the bottom of the seventh before Heckendorf singled to center, but the Knights stranded both runners after a pop out and a groundout ended the game.

Doering said she was happy to get the chance to play UNW early in the season as opposed to last season. The Knights finished their season last year with a pair of losses in a doubleheader to UNW in St. Paul.

“Northwestern’s always a solid team,” Doering said. “They have deep pitching, they have solid hitters, their coach [Alicia du’Monceaux] knows her stuff and has been doing this for a very long time, so we’re always very excited to play them, because they’re a really solid team. So we knew they were going to be solid, so we knew we had to play a clean game and we didn’t quite do that and that’s why the outcome was the way it was.”

The Knights (2-14, 0-2) will have another chance to take down the Eagles (10-7, 4-0) in a doubleheader Saturday, with the first game beginning at 11 a.m. at MLC.